Hey everyone. Long time since i’ve posted. Got married and bought a house within two days so its been one helluva year. With all of the planning and what not i havent had the chance to do any surf fishing since the spring. How does the surf treat you during the latter part of the year? What bite as the water starts to cool down?
Congrats Sir-Fish-Allot. You have been busy. It’s red fish season. They usually hit well into November unless your Mr. Parker. He generally catches fish long after the rest of us have bedded up for the winter. The reds hit mullet, shrimp, whiting, blues, crab. A #2-5 hook. A 50lb mono liter. Target troughs, sand bars and pot holes as tide rolls back in on them. I’ve been doing better on non full moon weekends. Now take that gal fishing.
If you’re going for reds, then fresh cut mullet is tough to beat this time of year. Live finger mullet is pretty good, too.
1994 Hewes Redfisher 18, 2004 Yamaha 150 VMAX
Malibu X-Factor Kayak
so when y’all use “cut mullet”, what your preference in how you cut it? “steaks”? strips? something else? does it even matter?
I don’t think it really matters – for me, it depends on the size of the hook that I’m using and the size of the mullet I’m cutting up. For the really large mullet, I like to fillet them and then cut the fillets into chunks, otherwise it’s too much to get on the hook. I don’t think that it matters much to the fish, but you want to make sure the hook can do its job. With a circle hook, that means that you want as little meat as possible inside the bend of the hook (while still staying on).
1994 Hewes Redfisher 18, 2004 Yamaha 150 VMAX
Malibu X-Factor Kayak
In short everything is biting, with less of the little bait snatchers, sharks and stingrays and larger sizes to fish like whiting, spots and croaker as well as the game fish turning on with a lot of fish fatting up for winter along with increased opportunity at trophy class reds. First catch fresh bait like shrimp and mullet and keep live or on ice but not in ice water slop, it washes out your bait. With shrimp I use the small ones whole after I smash them litly and pinch the head and tail hard to let out flavor, with a larger shrimp I do the same but with half a shrimp a hook, for really big shrimp I shell the head and use the legs and brains and peel and use the rest in pieces. When baiting up make sure your hands are clean of any manufactured smells, bug spray, sun screen, cologne, deodorant, I usually rub my hands through dirt, sand or grass, or bushes and then rinse in water before handling my bait to prevent a cross contamination of scents and flavors, trust me this is crucial, bait up with bug repellent or sunscreen on your hands and you get a lot less hits. Best for mullet is cut the tail off a live mullet and fish live hooked behind the nose or just the head half of a mullet on a 1/4 to 1 oz Carolina rig. Second is a live mullet cut in half for double rig just before you throw it hook it through the middle body sides, third is cut the head and tail off and use just the middle piece sized to your hook, so a 7/0 for like a 4 inch and a 9/0 for like a 6-8inch mid section, this is the highest catch ratio near 100%, then if you get large mullets I chunk them and then cut the chunk in half next to the backbone and de-bone the chunk. Large animals are lazy and like a big large easy meals so don’t think your bait is to big if you are trying to catch something big but match your hook and bait to your target fish size and with a circle hook just make sure the whole barb is sticking well out your bait and loosen your drag. Fish close to the rocks or a good inflow or outflow area, I prefer rocks on the down curr
In short everything is biting, with less of the little bait snatchers, sharks and stingrays and larger sizes to fish like whiting, spots and croaker as well as the game fish turning on with a lot of fish fatting up for winter along with increased opportunity at trophy class reds. First catch fresh bait like shrimp and mullet and keep live or on ice but not in ice water slop, it washes out your bait. With shrimp I use the small ones whole after I smash them litly and pinch the head and tail hard to let out flavor, with a larger shrimp I do the same but with half a shrimp a hook, for really big shrimp I shell the head and use the legs and brains and peel and use the rest in pieces. When baiting up make sure your hands are clean of any manufactured smells, bug spray, sun screen, cologne, deodorant, I usually rub my hands through dirt, sand or grass, or bushes and then rinse in water before handling my bait to prevent a cross contamination of scents and flavors, trust me this is crucial, bait up with bug repellent or sunscreen on your hands and you get a lot less hits. Best for mullet is cut the tail off a live mullet and fish live hooked behind the nose or just the head half of a mullet on a 1/4 to 1 oz Carolina rig. Second is a live mullet cut in half for double rig just before you throw it hook it through the middle body sides, third is cut the head and tail off and use just the middle piece sized to your hook, so a 7/0 for like a 4 inch and a 9/0 for like a 6-8inch mid section, this is the highest catch ratio near 100%, then if you get large mullets I chunk them and then cut the chunk in half next to the backbone and de-bone the chunk. Large animals are lazy and like a big large easy meals so don’t think your bait is to big if you are trying to catch something big but match your hook and bait to your target fish size and with a circle hook just make sure the whole barb is sticking well out your bait and loosen your drag. Fish close to the rocks or a good inflow or outflow area, I prefer rocks on the down curr
Great read 40 I picked up a few pointers, Thank you. I do some of the same things particularly the advice about bug repellant and sunscreen. I always use the spray and never let it come in contact with my hands. Bug repellant stays at home in my book. Deet flavored and scented mullet can no way be a good thing. I also use primarily the bodies for cut bait. Then I take the head and stomp on it a few times to help release oils, and toss it in the ocean in front of me allowing it to chum up the water. The tails I throw in the water as well when using cut bait from large fish. They get caught up in the current and blow my lines. Regarding what they eat ,large mullet filets are my favorite. I think they have had the opportunity to mature and grow fat which I believe is helpful seeing how the fish are trying to fatten up before winter. Kind of like a bear before hibernation. The reds I have found will hit what ever fresh cut bait I throw at them with the exception of shark and ray. Never tried those. I find the single most important factor for me is where I’m fishing. If I got fresh bait on top of it, I’m a happy camper. Many people have caught many a red on nasty 6 month old freezer burnt shrimp or mullet from God knows where. I just prefer fresh local bait if at all possible, it stays on the hook so much better and has got to be more desirable to eat. To each his own I suppose.